Mr Beast ./PHOTO; Courtesy
About 4,000 children in Ghana and Kenya are set to receive school lunches five days a week under new community-led programmes aimed at improving nutrition while strengthening local food systems and supporting farmers.
The initiatives, announced ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, are being developed through a strategic partnership between Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Over the next five years, the programmes will operate in Ghana’s Eastern Region and Kenya’s Bomet County, using locally produced food and regenerative farming practices.
The programmes are designed to address challenges that affect children’s ability to learn, while creating stronger links between schools, farmers and local food supply chains.
“Building schools gives kids a place to learn, but if they’re hungry, they can’t focus or reach their full potential,” said Jimmy Donaldson, founder of Beast Philanthropy.
“Partnering with The Rockefeller Foundation to provide nutritious, locally grown meals to these kids is a total game-changer. We’re not just feeding thousands of students, we’re helping local farmers and keeping kids healthy in a sustainable way.”
In Ghana, the programme will initially provide meals to children in 10 schools serving nine communities in the Eastern Region.
The initiative will work with local organisations and cocoa farmers to introduce intercropping, allowing farmers to grow food alongside cocoa while improving soil health and increasing the availability of locally produced food for school meals.
School gardens and farms will also be developed as the programme expands, creating opportunities for children to learn about nutrition and agriculture.
In Kenya, the initiative will begin in three schools and focus on developing a school meal model suited to the region. School gardens will serve as learning spaces for nutrition and regenerative agriculture, while fortified beans produced by local farmers will be linked to school meal supply chains.
The programme will also introduce solar-powered clean cooking systems to reduce exposure to harmful cooking smoke and lessen dependence on traditional fuels.
“Already we are seeing immense opportunity for more sustainable, nutritious, and regenerative school meals and what a difference it makes in the lives of learners,” said Carol Moraa, Project Principal at Beast Philanthropy.
The partnership has already supported clean cooking systems in two Kenyan schools, including a hybrid solar-electric system and a clean cookstove using farm-waste briquettes.
The Rockefeller Foundation says it has committed more than $6.75 million over the past five years to school meal programmes in Ghana and Kenya.
Michael Alandu, Country Director of CARE Ghana, said the initiative connects school meals with support for farmers facing increasingly difficult farming conditions.
“This project is a testament to what sustainable development in action can look like,” Alandu said. “It brings together one of the most robust policy solutions, school meals, and connects it with local efforts to support farmers and ensure they transition to practices that will help them sustain their farms when extreme weather hits.”
The programmes are intended to build longer-term community ownership by connecting children’s nutrition with local agriculture, livelihoods and school-based learning.
